D&D 5E (2014) How to convince better half

[Dausuul]

Wife singing "I'd do anything for love (but I won't do that"? The daughter singing "Lost boys and golden girls"? More than one option IMHO.

Just make sure it doesn't turn into the wife singing "Bat Out of Hell."

 

[SirGrotius]

Been married for 14 years and wife has ZERO interest in D&D. It's my thing with my friends, and she has her things, and somewhere in the middle we have the things we both like. One of my gamers has been married longer with 5 kids and same thing. Wife ZERO interest but his oldest loves it.

I wouldn't do anything extra. If your kids are interested, they'll probably ask mom to join at some point for a family game.

This seems spot on. It's like zero interest/intrigue, which I found so surprising from someone who reads King, Tolkien, etc. but a laissez-faire approach is in order, and maybe seeing others play will pique curiosity or not. I'm fine either way.

 

[Charlaquin]

Hi all - for some of the old-school gamers here, do you have any tips for enticing your better half to the D&D side? I gamed back in the day and this quarantine has sprung the itch again, however, having a young family presents a few challenges as well as opportunities. My kids are intrigued, being 7 and 9 and full of wonder, but my wife is at that time in life when she's always busy, and likes to veg out with netflix or a good Stephen King book, etc. Any tips for bringing her over to the gaming side? I don't think she has a good conception of what D&D is besides being on the nerdy side of the spectrum and involving dice, although she had a penchant for fantasy and horror during her studies, so I know she can appreciate good lore.

Thanks!

Recommend Critical Role to her. It’ll fill that role of something to veg over after work, and give her an example of D&D being played. That’s how I got my partner into it. Though, they were already kind of interested but intimidated by the perception that the rules would be really hard to learn.

 

[Retreater]

All these Meat Loaf references took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Unwise]

OP, I asked my wife for her advice on DMing planning.

"Just to help me prep for this game, if you were in this situation...what would you do?"
"I'm running a game where I had a female ghost haunting a family mansion, but I can't think of a good motivation for why, any ideas?"
"Got any good riddles for a sphinx encounter?"
"What do you think would make a really action packed finale for an adventure on the high seas? any suggested monsters? how would the PCs survive that?"

Then I would tell her about how things played out and the funny/dumb things the PCs did. Soon she was hooked into wanting to see how the scenarios she helped design played out. Then she wanted to join in properly.